EAGLEBEAR'S COMMENTS ABOUT OUR INIPI

STONE PEOPLE

It has taken a while for me to assimilate the feelings and images
flooding up into me from my recent sweatlodge ceremony in Hawthorne. So I
appreciate all your patience. For whatever reason it may be important, I
offer these to you in the way they came to me....

Green Willow branches, ripe with spring sap...pliable, bendable,
shapable...tied with cords...joined individuals, holding each other
together in unity to make a shell of protection, power, harmony,
healing.

FireSpirit Dancing, warm to the touch, life bringer, collector in wood of
all the millenia of starlight...coursing through the stillness of the
night air, releasing power and healing into our eyes...rebirthing the
place of beginnings when Mother's heart formed these
stonepeople....HOT.....red glowing energetic little suns, expectant,
dancing with the ancestors wisdom.

Coverings of blankets, cloth, laced together in the wind, warriors
proudly displaying powerful shields against the edges of other
realities...tribe...keepers of our special place...Gathered together by
all who came, special colors, different patterns, different smells,
different energies, all together over Mother's Back....the shell
becomes...like the sisters...each bony covering unique, yet part of the
whole....synergy dancing.

Rain, Thunder, Lightning,.....boom, boom....Songs of power in our hearts
and minds....Clouds racing low, giving place to the fire, waiting for
ceremony, eager to show their power...adding mystery...drumming overhead,
yet beneath us, inside us all.

Friends enter humbly on hand and knees, joining close, bound together in
expectant quietness...finding sacred places in which to come for healing,
for prayers, for empowerment, for giving of gifts...Brothers and Sisters,
together in old time, not in this dimension, other realities begin to find
our minds...other lodges...other walks...East sings songs of the
morning...Eagle cries....we are in the heartspace again as we have been so
many many times before....South cries...the deer people and the Corn
Mother...ancient Selu'...giver of Life....Bear talks of the West, deep,
places of quiet rest....dark skies, introspection and
spirit....ho!......North prays for us...Wolfsongs...Ancient wisdom...White
Buffalo Woman lights the pipe...sacred tobacco prayers fill us, envelop us
in the mystery.......We are one...sacred union restored......Hoop sings,
Ho! O'Itchikiye'.

Pipe, smoking....scent of old medicine... rings of light from each mouth
as prayers become power bubbles next to Earth and
Heaven....sings....songs....chants......warm....Smell of sage, clean,
sweet, cleansing gifts......Hiss of water, breath of Grandfather given to
us for our cleansing.....deep inside......visions of other days when we
ran free,...visions of the Mothers caring for us, giving us songs and
words of power....the hunt...

Prayers, multicolored ties of tobacco and cloth, tied in prayerful union
and deep sharing, suspended from the canopy of space over our heads, yet
still and expectant, eager for their release into reality....Flags of
place and hope...another energy binds them before, transformed into light,
healing, power, joy....Hope sings through the Mothers.....chants come
through the Fathers, visions dance...

Hot, red Grandfathers...Hot red Grandmothers....walk the path of spirit,
ask to be admitted to share their powerful energy.....All sit patiently,
awestruck in the power of their heat and knowledge. Red dances in
sparkles of bright yellow orange pink violet as sage joins with herbs,
sacred scent.....finding our hearts through our eyes, our nose, our skin,
our ears, our mouths....Light flashes in the darkness....over us, through
us, under us......Mitakuye' Oyasin'.....

Powerful energy of the Grandfathers come...the
warriors....teaching....healing...showing coup
sticks.....warshirts...horsehair...painted faces screaming old
words...lances planted...staffs of elders....bringing the shields to
stand over us...allowing us to find our vital
power....old...real...hunters again....

The soft gentleness of the Grandmothers come.....sweet
forgiveness....tears...flowingheartsongs.....gentle voices of the
teachers....otters and wolves....caring caresses....One is lifted over the
stone people....scent of too new medicine escapes her....body becoming
whole in the floating cinders....filling the shell of their medicine
lodge.....finding violet rays of swirling light....red stones becomes
white-pink in the energies of the ancient Mothers holding her, tending her
wounded body....nurturing....blessing....prayers of powerful knowing
touch.....sitting in the bright winding spirals of joy and soft
places....reiki places...star places again...maya mother, Ho!.

Strong Ancestors come....bringing game....fresh skins.....new
totems....knives.....shells....sage...cedar...tobacco....Songs and
Gambling tonight...much to share from many trails long forgotten,
coming in families, coming in clans...reminders of tribes....adoptions,
homes....Hot searing breath of the strong ones...the elk, the strong
trees....men walk as men now, unafraid....bringing wisdom of our place in
the universe....strong virile progenitors, keepers, makers of nations.
Red seems as their blood, streams of honor coursing inside us, making us
whole and strong. Hearts beat in black, white, yellow, green.....colors
of the winds....Eagle cries, Raven stares, Owl watches....Bear Smiles.

Lake sings softly under the showering rain....accepting her own,
holding power blessed of stars...Silver, quiet, cooling...inviting our hot
energy to blend in union...giving yet taking...dancing together in old
rythyms...locked together in ageless joining....man and woman....night and
day....inner and outer....heaven and earth....hot and cold.....reminders
of our natural gifts...our joy to spirit, our special relationship with
our creator, need, giving and receiving.....community.

Sweat...Sand...grit....old becoming removed, new skins grow to replace the
old, weak as new babies, needful of water, energies building in the
strange light of night, emerging cleanly, thankfully expectant, kissing
her, hands on her, praying for new life, looking first for each
other....needing tribes....breezes....wonder.

Joy abounds here....pain is gone from here....Earth Mother cleanses us and
is also cleansed. Peace comes to my heart again, inipi. Mitakuye'
Oyaisin.

Dance well, my beloved gentle family. I love you so.

Dan EagleBear

A PERSONAL POEM FROM EAGLEBEAR TO ME ABOUT THE INIPI EXPERIENCE

things are strongly stirring....?
always when we visit the stone people, realignments, and opportunities for
cleansing, newness and growth come.

a little verse for you today,

In the air between us flies the One
Silently....
Swiftly watching the sacred spaces
giving place to wonderful things, not speaking or squawking...
Feathers shine, black to blue

Songs only are thought
planted deeply until the time they need to emerge
as Loud raucous rhymes

Smoke and Breath mingle

Dancing the old dances
Given in Purity

Cleansing comes

Strongly, gently, the sacred and the profane
Speak together in heart counsel...
growing sacred groves where meetings bring
Offspring of pure intention, harmony and questions

We are one. We are loved. We sang. We sing still.
And our ancestors dance in our hearts and eyes.